Hey there- Here's a question you've probably heard a few times already: What is the most efficient way (in terms of water usage) to chill my wort? I rent, but sadly I pay for water usage, and my bills can get pretty high. I'm looking for a way to chill wort without wasting too much water. I've see recirculating methods using a separate cooler with ice water and a pump. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance

Typically plate chillers like the terminator or shirron use the least amount of water. Having a pre-chiller sitting in an ice bath will help if using a immersion chiller. Also recirculating the cooled wort back into the kettle will reduce cooling times in turn reducing water usage.

You could also capture the water runoff and uses in your washing machine. I use some of the heated water from cooling to cleanup my equipment when I'm finished with my brew day.

I added a long hose to the exit end of my immersion wort chiller. I put my brew pots in a "muck bucket" and then put the exit hose in the muck bucket so the wort gets chilled with the immersion chiller and the brew pot gets chilled from the outside too.

I don't pay for water but it only takes 15 minutes to chill down 10 gallons of wort using this method with a very minimal flow of cold well water. I did add a wood platform of sorts so the brew pot is taller than the muck bucket.

jawbox wrote:Typically plate chillers like the terminator or shirron use the least amount of water. Having a pre-chiller sitting in an ice bath will help if using a immersion chiller. Also recirculating the cooled wort back into the kettle will reduce cooling times in turn reducing water usage.

You could also capture the water runoff and uses in your washing machine. I use some of the heated water from cooling to cleanup my equipment when I'm finished with my brew day.

This is very interesting to know because I am also looking for a new chiller and it would be great to have one which uses the least amount of water. At the moment I am renting a chiller but as I said I want to buy my own one. Will definitely try to get one with the least amount of water because my bills are already very high. Saving money would therefore be great.